Quanye Bank Building

Date CapturedJuly 3rd, 2018 at 08:52 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IIApertureƒ / 7.1Shutter Speed1/200 secFocal Length20.0 mmISO100Exposure Value13.3 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

Completed in 1933 as the Taipei branch of Japan’s Nippon Kangyō Bank (日本勸業銀行), designed by the bank’s in-house architecture division and built by Ōbayashi Gumi (大林組). The imposing grey-white façade belongs to the Mayan Revival movement then fashionable in the United States and Japan, with colossal columns, lion-face pediments, and curling plant motifs rendered in earthquake-resistant stucco. After the war the building served as headquarters of Taiwan Land Bank (臺灣土地銀行) from 1946 to 1965, and then as its securities hall until 1988. Municipal monument designation was awarded in 1991 after years of contestation. A 2007 restoration required Japanese master plasterer Komatsu Shichirō (小松七郎) to teach the traditional techniques needed to rebuild the lost relief work. The building has operated since 2010 as the Land Bank Exhibition Hall of the National Taiwan Museum (國立臺灣博物館古生物館).